GROUP 5 NEWS & INFORMATION |
| Jan 14, 2010 |
| Part I - Senior Member Retention In Group Five |
| By: Capt. Jeff Carlson, PAO, Group Five, FLWG |
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This past November, the Group Five staff gathered to begin planning activities for the coming calendar year. One of the items discussed was poor member retention. Statistics show both national and wing rates have been steadily falling over the past couple of years and it seemed a good idea to come up with a strategy to stop any hemorrhaging we may be experiencing in the Group Five family of units.
I worked with Major Joe Wilkins of Group Five Professional Development to conduct a survey designed to find out what the general membership thought about this issue. An invitation to participate in the survey was sent to all senior members in Group Five who have an email contact listed in the Ops Qual database at national. A typical response rate for a survey like this is around 15%. Joe and I were pleased to receive a response from 25% of the senior members who were invited to participate. This gave us a 99% probability that the results of the sample were statistically significant and the data was representative of the whole population of Group Five members. |
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| The survey results told us that only 12% of the membership feel retention was not a problem with senior members, 42% said that it might be a problem but their unit’s retention rate was similar to other squadron's rate. |
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| 19% of the respodents said that retention was definitely a problem and 27% didn’t know. This told us that whether factual or not, over 60% of the membership perceived that poor retention was an issue with senior members. In fact, close to one out of every five members thought CAP recruitment and retention was a revolving door with members leaving as fast as new members were joining. |
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I contacted Marie Vogt, Chief of Development at CAPNHQ, for some hard numbers. She was exremely helpful and told me that in 2007 the national Annual Retention Rate was in the low-70th percentile and by November 2009 had dropped to 64%. During the same period, Florida Wing had dipped from 69% in 2007 to 65% in November 2009. She said that the exit interviews conducted by national did not suggest a significant effect caused by the deteriorating economic conditions.
I asked her to mine some data about the Group 5 squadrons to see if the members were correct and Group 5 shared the same downward trend that was being witnessed across the nation as well as state-wide in Florida. The results were surprising. The average annual retention rate for senior members in Group Five was almost 20% higher than the national average and the average for Florida Wing. |
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The graph above reflects the percentage of senior members who renewed their membership during the year. The graph below represents the total number of potential renewals for the year. The percentages were calculated based on the number of members up for renewal in a given year who actually renewed their membership.
Looking at the impressive renewal rates, I began to wonder if there was a "Diehard Effect" at work. That is, as the squadron membership was shrinking the rising retention statistic was reflecting a growing percentage of those that refuse to give up the ship along with the inactive members who renew each year regardless of organization activity. Using these two graphs you can see there are squadrons which may reflect the growing influence of 'diehards' on the retention statistic, but other squadrons show a growing membership and increasing retention annual rate, impressive! |
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In any case, Group 5 can be proud that its Annual Retention Rate is significantly higher than the CAP national average and that of Florida Wing. This surprising revelation caused me to continue my investigation and take a closer look at what national refers to as First Term Retention Rate, a statistic about brand new members renewing at the end of their first year of membership. (to be continued)
Any good newsman knows you have to employ a strategy to keep the readers coming back. So we will examine the cadet retention statistics and First Term Retention rates in future installments of this series. |
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